Golden Dome is back in the news, albeit in an unusual way.
It’s not because Russia or China are building new intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, but because U.S. President Donald Trump worked himself into a corner promising he’d acquire Greenland one way or another, and the inevitable result was economic turmoil, the possible end of NATO, and Prime Minister Mark Carney telling the world the Pax Americana is effectively over.
Sir Keir Starmer recently tried to take credit for his role in Donald Trump’s partial climbdown on tariffs relating to Greenland. Whether he played any meaningful part is debatable.
What is beyond doubt, however, is that Donald Trump will happily reach for the tariff weapon again whenever it suits him. Even against long-standing allies, and especially against those he believes are acting against US interests.
Just look at Canada and the increasingly heated rivalry between Trump and the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney. The president last week threatened eye-watering tariffs of 100pc on all goods and services entering the US.
As we sang “Auld Lang Syne” in the early morning of Jan. 1, 2025, the first American newborn of the year arrived to much fanfare and celebration.
But this time, the baby was the progeny of Chinese citizens, and the mother had intentionally traveled to give birth on American soil, so that the child would automatically be granted US citizenship, a practice known as birth tourism. When such children turn 21, they can also apply for resident status for both of their parents.
I’m still processing how the world changed last week. President Trump’s wild threats against Greenland — and by extension against America’s NATO allies — crystallized for many leaders what they already believed but perhaps were too scared to say out loud: The rules-based international order is no more.
The man who said it out loud, Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, became something of a hero in Davos. Today, I’m writing about what Canada’s efforts to pivot away from an increasingly volatile America can teach other countries.
“Russia is without question a threat in the Arctic,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said this month at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Without question, Russia does lots of horrible things.”
Russia, despite all the horrible things it does, is not able to challenge Canada without its partner. Carney was quick to name China as the biggest security threat to his country during a federal election debate last April. At Davos, however, he was not willing to talk about China posing a danger to his country.
Moreover, his foreign affairs minister was similarly reluctant. Anita Anand in Davos did not name names when reporters asked her to cite the top threat facing Canada.
Chinese electric vehicles still pose a national security threat despite Canada lifting its tariff blockade, security experts warn, adding that nothing has changed since the previous federal government voiced concerns nearly two years ago.
Yet those experts also warn that the cybersecurity and privacy threats extend beyond Chinese-made vehicles to any car connected to the internet, which requires a robust response from Ottawa.
State-sponsored Chinese hackers have been quietly breaking into the phones of senior British government officials for years—including close aides to recent prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak.
The Daily Telegraph reports that spies have “compromised senior members of the government, exposing their private communications to Beijing.”
Our new partner!
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January agreement to facilitate Chinese journalist access to Canada represents one of the most reckless national security decisions in recent Canadian history. The deal commits Canada to “provide mutual support and convenience for media to work in each other’s countries” through a formal agreement with China Media Group, the Communist Party’s state propaganda apparatus.
Canada is an open society. That is our strength—and, increasingly, our vulnerability.
There is a reason why the United States and Canada consider China a “non-market economy.”
Beijing, rather than market forces, determines production and prices.
Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2000, it has been able to access Western markets, without offering reciprocal access.
Driving down an uncertain road.
On his recent trip to Beijing, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised the leadership of Xi Jinping and announced plans to bring 49,000 Chinese electric cars into Canada. In several ways that escaped notice, Carney was following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
As David Frum notes, Trudeau “traveled to Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda activities,” a reference to the Moscow Economic Conference in April, 1952. Stalin’s USSR came billed as a workers’ state based on the “scientific” principles of Marxism-Leninism, as opposed to the “bourgeois” nations with their market economies. The regime’s admirers assumed that the Communist regime’s products would be superior, but it didn’t turn out that way.
On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canada with 100 per cent tariffs on all goods if Prime Minister Mark Carney proceeds with his China trade deal. The president’s language was characteristically blunt: Canada would become a “drop off port” for Chinese goods, and “China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it.” This is the predictable consequence of Carney’s reckless foreign policy.
It is alleged Carney is an intelligent man so he had to understand the consequences of his comments.
Which leads me to believe he acted to ensure China and not the US is our partner.
Trump isn’t working for Canada but neither is Carney.
Carney a two-faced Liberal? Talking Big for the Elbow People?
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking to Fox News tonight, says Trump and Carney spoke today and claims Carney was “very aggressively walking back some of the unfortunate remarks he made at Davos.” pic.twitter.com/LjnurWXIWM
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) January 27, 2026
China said on Monday that a preliminary trade deal with Canada “does not target any third parties” after the United States threatened to impose 100-per cent tariffs on Canadian products if the agreement were finalised.
Under the deal, announced this month, Beijing is expected to reduce tariffs on Canadian canola imports and grant Canadians visa-free travel to China.
But over the weekend, the United States — Canada’s traditional ally — threatened to impose 100-per cent tariffs on Canadian products if the deal were to go ahead, saying it would allow China to “dump goods”.
I totally trust Xi!
OTTAWA/LOS ANGELES — The weekend delivered a jolt from Beijing that underscores a theme Chris Meyer and I have explored across multiple podcast discussions: Xi Jinping’s regime can look strong yet be brittle.
China’s Defence Ministry says it has opened investigations into senior military figures including Gen. Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission—an escalation that is shaking the top ranks of the People’s Liberation Army and fuelling fresh questions, inside and outside China, about whether this is an anti-corruption purge, a political power struggle, or both.
It’s pizza in our time.
Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney made peace over Pizza Nova slices Monday in Etobicoke.
Ford, who settled for a veggie piece, bought Carney a slice of Hawaiian, joking, “I know you will probably get me on taxes so I’ll pay for this.”
Monday’s confab at a Royal York Road plaza came after the premier had complained last week that the prime minister blindsided Ontario when he slashed tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles earlier this month during a trade mission to Beijing.
Two politicians walk into a pizza shop.#onpoli #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/cBE6Olc0WG
— Colin D’Mello | Global News (@ColinDMello) January 26, 2026
Dougie seems to have bought into a new vision! The ChiCom spyware on wheels is still on the way but something swayed Ford.
Doug Ford calls federal auto strategy ‘great’ and says Ontario will be part of it after meeting with Carney and Joly
Ontario Premier Doug Ford appears to have had a change of heart when it comes to the federal government’s auto strategy after hearing more about it from federal officials.
“I also want to thank Minister (Mélanie) Joly for coming up with a great auto strategy that the minister has put together that we’re going to be part of,” Ford said at a news conference with Joly at Queen’s Park Monday after the two met.
Kinda odd the way Joly is lookin at Dougie…
Well, who saw that coming? Yesterday’s threat from President Donald Trump – that Canada would face 100% tariffs on all exports to the United States (US) if it “does a deal with China” – was widely reported and widely derided in Canadian political circles.
Yet if you strip away the hyperbole and the social media grandstanding, Trump’s response was both predictable and in a narrow strategic sense, reasonable. Think about it; to establish a continental security perimeter against Russia and China, he’s trying to get his hands on Greenland. But even as he’s doing that, the Government of Canada is opening up a backdoor entry point to China.
(Incognito)
